Using Windows and never faced errors? Liar! Windows user is bound to face errors every now and then. It is not so that only the novice tech users face errors as they commit silly mistakes but even the smart techie kids also hit brick walls while using Windows Operating System. To add to the frustration of error is the language which our user friendly operating system uses to explain what has actually happened. I don’t know why but I never saw an error which had an explanation that even a layman would understand.

In my last post I told you how Driver Library has proved helpful for me to get hold of some necessary drivers. I was surfing their website when I stumbled on their partner site PC Library. Another database with all the information which an error prone Windows OS user might need. All you need to know is the error code which you received and then look for that error number in the error codes page.

See the image above? They have every kind of error that your Windows OS might ever bang you with. And the way they start explaining errors was awesome for me.

Just check the information for Error 0 - 0×0. Name of the error is ERROR_SUCCESS and it means that the process was completed without any glitches! Well, this is how one should start building an errors list. From the very positive to the worst Error 15299 - 0×3BC3 which means that your operating system couldn’t find the required device. Oops!

And if you think that this is all that PC Library has then you are wrong. After the list of errors they have an extensive list of port numbers and their explanations. Whenever you are stuck with ‘what is the responsibility of some particular port’ then you can jump to udp and tcp ports page of this website and select the desired port.

The basic definition of a port is a gateway which applications use to connect to some hardware. I agree that there are many more things related to port numbers but this is what happens in a nutshell.

All in all I will call PC-Library.com to be a simple, useful, and up-to-date website for any user (layman or experienced) who has Windows Operating System installed in his computer.

Well, this might not be that helpful but it will give you the chance to show of to your friends that how geeky you are! Remember that this might create problems with those applications that rely on system time (especially those who reply on PM / AM markers).

From your Control Panel open Regional and Language Option and then click on Customize Tab.

In the Customize Regional Options window choose the Time Tab and click on the AM Symbol field. You will find a cursor their and now you can enter whatever you want in this field. Like I have changed AM to AM - CW (where CW is for CompuWorld)

Click Apply twice and voila! Your clock will show what you wanted.

You don’t believe me? Go ahead and press alt, shift, print screen keys together. Press OK if it gives you a warning and boom!

This is how my screen looks in normal state.

And this is how it looks after I pressed that combination.

Well, to make things clear this is just another hidden feature of Windows. It is for those who have poor eyesight or for those who have spoiled their eyesights by constantly using computers.

Note: You can always bring back the monitor to normal state by pressing the combination once again. And yes, my desktop theme was lost after I brought back the monitor to old state.

Well, as your windows installation grow older and older the system boot time and the system shutdown speed increases and at times this is really very irritating. Recently when my friend grumbled at me saying that I am a computer engineer and still I do not know how to increase his computer’s shutdown speed then I had to Google the stuff and here are the results.

NOTE: Methods below require changes in your registry so better back up your registry by creating a restore point before implementing the methods show below.

To open registry in Vista press the Windows key, type regedit, and press Enter; in XP, click Start > Run, type regedit, and press Enter.

Method 1:

In the left pane of the registry window navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / desktop (or Desktop). Now in the right pane find the key WaitToKillAppTimeout and change its value to 2000 (this is milliseconds) if you are actually in a hurry or else something higher if you want them to take some time before they are dead.

Here you can let the system wait a little before the hung application is killed. Search for the key HungAppTimeout in the same right pane and change its value to 2000 (or whatever time in milliseconds you want the application to take before it is killed).

Making these changes in HKEY_USERS / .DEFAULT / Control Panel / Desktop path will add the changes to every users profile and not just yours

Method 2:

In same registry path shown above in right pane check the key AutoEndTasks and change the value to 1. Now go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control and change the value of key WaitToKillServiceTimeout to 1000 and click ok.

Your system should show some improvements in shutdown speed.

Although Windows has the option to show the volume control once you click the Volume icon in the system tray but there are people who like to keep their system tray empty. For those we have a utility mute.exe which resides on your desktop or on any other menu (as per your choice.) You do a double click on it, like any other icon, and your system goes to mute state and thus prevents you ears from listening the unwanted sounds (at least now you will have one less reason to buy energy pills) Another double-click will bring it back to same volume level as it was before.

If you add command-line switches, it can do more. For example, “Mute.exe on” always mutes. If you add the “-delay” switch (for example, Mute.exe on -delay), Mute will stay quietly in memory until you logoff or shutdown Windows; it will then mute the sound at that time.

Download mute.exe